US coronavirus cases pass the 4-million mark
The total number of cases rose to above four million on Thursday amid concerns over the rapid rise in the number of daily infections across the USA.
The total number of coronavirus cases reported in the United States passed 4 million on Thursday as record daily numbers were recorded in some of the worst-hit states. The administration of President Donald Trump has come in for sharp criticism for its handling of the Covid-19 crisis with the White House incumbent losing ground in the polls ahead of the presidential election against Democratic nominee Joe Biden after pushing for a swift reopening of the battered US economy amid one of the highest unemployment rates in the country since the Great Depression.
The US has faced a rapid rise in the number of Covid-19 cases since a phased reopening of the economy started in May. After the first case of the novel coronavirus was recorded in the US on 21January it took 98 days to for the country to reach one million cases, but it has taken just 16 days to go from three million to four million according to a Reuters tally. tally.
The average number of new US cases is now rising by more than 2,600 every hour, the highest rate in the world.
Covid-19 epicenter moves to South and West
As the pandemic has spread widely over the country, moving from the early epicenter of New York to the South and West, federal, state and local officials have clashed over how to fight it, including over how and when to ease social and economic restrictions aimed at curbing the infection rate.
Whether to order the wearing of masks, a common practice in the rest of the world and recommended by the federal government's own health experts, has become highly politicized, with some Republican governors particularly resistant.
Hostility to the idea appeared to be dwindling this week, however, including from the White House and Trump who once dismissed mask-wearing as an effort to be politically correct.
Trump has long refused to wear a mask in public but this week encouraged Americans to do so after sporting one for the first time during an official visit.
While Trump did not issue a national mandate, US Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir on Thursday cited the importance of masks in "turning that tide."
"We have to do our mitigation steps: wear a mask, avoid the crowds. We won't see hospitalizations and deaths go down for a couple of weeks because of lagging indicators, but we are turning that tide," Giroir told Fox News Network.
He also said the time it currently takes to get coronavirus test results back needs to be reduced. The huge surge in infections has created a testing backlog.
Quest Diagnostics Inc, one of the nation's biggest medical test companies, said on Thursday it expects to cut week-long turnaround times for Covid-19 tests by more than half to get to "acceptable" levels by September.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy: "Masks work"
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy on Thursday said measures such as wearing masks were helping to lower the numbers of deaths and new cases in his state, once one of the hardest hit.
"What the current data can tell us is that social distancing, wearing that face covering, that stuff works, and it tells us that everyone should go get tested,” the Democratic governor said at an event.
On Thursday, Florida reported a record one-day increase in Covid-19 deaths with 173 lives lost, according to the state health department.
Alabama reported a record increase in cases for the fourth time this month.